Industry News

IT’S time to educate the haters! Our new Channel Mum survey has found a shocking 94 per cent of mums-to-be get cruel comments on their weight and body shape – known as bump shaming – while pregnant.

At the time when you need support most, strangers, friends, family and even your own partner and mum somehow feel it’s OK to judge how your baby body looks. The result? Tears, isolation and seven per cent of mums now dieting during pregnancy – which is so wrong.

So starting from today, that’s why we are calling out the bump shamers and saying #DontBullyTheBump. All of our bodies are different shapes and sizes – so why should that be any different during pregnancy? So if you’ve been bump shamed, let us know – and watch our new video for some quick comebacks to show the shamers why they’re going wrong.

Totes exciting news today as Iceland have dropped celebrity stars like Kerry Katona and Stacey Solomon from their ad campaigns to use us REAL mums from Channel Mum. The high street store decided to use the #PowerOfMum to promote the #PowerOfFrozen after recent research found just 13 per cent of young mums still care what celebrities are selling, and even fewer believe that the stars actually use those products with their own families.

Our news has been met with excitement in the media today, with the Telegraph newspaper and lots of other titles covering it. And we’ve even got our own thing – Recomumdation – meaning mums trust advice from other mothers over conventional advertising. But hey, we already knew that. And that’s why we’ve launched #FrozenFriday to share all our scrummiest meals and cooking tips, tricks and hack ideas from Iceland. Salmon Parcels with Dill – who knew? Frozen Millie’s Cookies? We’re in!

Today our Iceland Secret Mission has gone live on Channel Mum along with a host of new videos from our community showing us their hauls. It’s such an eye opener to see all the amazing things they’ve found in Iceland. Frozen coconut anyone? Check out Charlotte and Ciara testing theirs. Fancy find out more? Watch our Secret Mission video and all the fab vlogger hauls and we guarantee you’re going to be surprised!

Love, the Channel Mum team x

PS You can cook the below ALL from frozen in 11 minutes and it’s only £2 a head! Find out how here.

The twenty ninth of February 2016 is a big day – and not just because it’s a leap year so you can pop the question to your other half! Much more importantly, it’s the first ever MumVidCon: the conference for UK mum vloggers hosted by us together with YouTube and ITV.

Just a year ago when Channel Mum first set up, YouTube was awash with teen channels – but there were fewer than 20 mum vloggers in the UK. In fact we had to launch a sponsorship programme to encourage mums to pick up their cameras.

Fast-forward a year and things look very different. We’ve just launched a website which brings together more than 110 mums – and wonderfully some dads too – vlogging from every corner of the UK. Viewers can now watch honest, real-life experiences on everything from trying to conceive, through pregnancy, birth, newborns, toddlers to tantrums and teens. Or they can simply tune in for a cuppa and a little window into someone else’s world, with all the daily ups and downs of family life.

Our amazing family of vloggers are making a real difference to families in lots of different ways. From major events like pregnancy announcements, relationship issues or managing your mental health, to the everyday but essential parts of family life like shopping hauls and meal planning – the Channel Mum crew always have a vlog which will help.

So, MumVidCon is a chance for Mum Vloggers to come together for the first time as professionals. To look at best practice guidelines, to understand why we do what we do, to examine how the big metrics work and enable us to make vlogging a career. But, also to realise what really drives us and why reaching just that one mum who sees your story and feels better is a real success.

Vlogging is powerful. By putting yourself out there, sharing your story can change one mum’s day – and it may change her life and her child’s future. You have that power. So we’d love you to be part of this very special day. Here is the programme and speakers. When we originally booked the room for 50 people, we were a very small team. Now we’re kicking ourselves as we want to invite ten times more people – but no one could have predicted the community would grow so fast, or that we’d find so many talented people. So if you didn’t get a space, that’s my fault, I’m sorry! We’ll put it right by putting everything useful on social media and putting video highlights up afterwards.

For us, this event is about the spirit of YouTube – being open and collaborative and sharing what we’ve learned on the journey so far. It’s about giving back, paying forwards and growing together. And making some new friends along the way. So do follow our hashtag #MumVidCon across social media where we’ll add anything interesting and useful including links to videos, print outs, takeaways etc. Also, we promise we will get the BIGGEST venue we can next time and invite ALL the mum vloggers we know. So if you feel we don’t know you yet, drop us a line at [email protected] and we’ll add you to our ‘friends’ list – or get involved on social and say hello.

WHAT a month it’s been for births! Louis Tomlinson is the first 1D daddy after his ex Briana Jungwirth gave birth to tot Freddie Reign. Coleen and Wayne Rooney are building their very own footie team after welcoming third son Kit, while McBusted star Harry Judd is the now proud papa to baby Lola with wife Izzy. We also welcomed a new Channel Mum baby this month, congrats to Lauren on the birth of daughter Sienna.

But there’s one more new arrival we want you to welcome – our brand new bouncing baby, the new Channel Mum website!

While we don’t have any stretchmarks to show for it, we’ve had plenty of sleepless nights, as we want to make Channel Mum the place mums go for video – and the most trusted source of video parenting info on the web.

With us busy mums having an average of just 17 minutes downtime each day, we know you don’t have time to read books or guides or wade through text-heavy websites – so watching a quick vid on your phone is the way to go.

And we also know you want information from other mums just like you, to share the latest tips, the highs and the lows, the laughs and the tears, and all those special moments which make being a mums so worthwhile.

As the honest face of parenting, all the girls at Channel Mum promise to always tell it like it is. Whatever you need to know – and whatever you’re going through with your pregnancy or family – we understand as we’re right there with you.

Our team of top vloggers includes pregnant mums, single mums, mums with twins, families with all boys, all girls or a mix, large families, singletons, plus families on the IVF journey.

They want to share their world with you – and hear all about your family too.

So please, take a look around, make yourself at home, and become part of our lovely supportive Channel Mum family.

‘TIS the season to make money – and retailers across the UK are locked in the annual battle of the Christmas ads.

The seasonal scrap pits supermarkets and catalogue firms against department stores and food retailers to create the most memorable commercial, and set the tills jingling as consumers flood through the doors.

As sure as Santa arriving on Christmas Eve, John Lewis has swept the board for the last few years, creating a string of weepie mini-epics to tug on consumer’s heartstrings, and show spending lavishly is the way to have a very merry Christmas.

Previously, competitors have tried to copy the firm’s signature style with highly emotional story-led commercials, but this year there’s a change taking place that could impact on future festive ads.

With more young under 30s – dubbed the Millennial Generation – having children, there’s a subtle but very real shift away from overblown ads to something which better serves the busy family consumer.

New research from our young audience here at Channel Mum shows while the John Lewis ‘Man on the Moon’ ad still registers as the favourite with shoppers, the most effective Christmas ad is Aldi’s, and fellow discounters Argo, Lidl and Asda all polled better than pricier rivals.

Most significantly, a third of mums quizzed said they plan to shop at Aldi after watching the current ‘Favourite Things’ campaign, compared to just 31 per cent who will buy from John Lewis. While the percentage point difference is small, it’s the first time we’ve seen it – and it’s in line with the more product and price-conscious shopping habits of millennial mums.

What Aldi has done very well is combine the strong pricing and product message, wrapped up with emotional pull and a sprinkling of seasonal hope and positivity. It’s a hard thing to do well but the advert looks effortless and it also appeals to children as there are so many delicious and shiny things to look at – and all the ones kids love!

And there’s also been a change in the way young consumers feel about the money spent on the John Lewis ad. Almost half of young mums feel the £7m cost of the commercial was heavily excessive and would have been better spent in part as a charity donation, while a quarter complain there is way too much hype about it each year. Again, this is the first time we’ve seen these sentiments and is indicative of a new generation coming through.

Now each generation has its own ideas and identity, so with even more young mums holding the purse strings next year, it will be fascinating to see how the changes develop. We know Millennials are practical and price conscious but also aspirational and adore bling and glamour, so bring on the ad that combines all of those and we’ll find next year’s Christmas commercial winner!

It’s been a busy few weeks here at Channel Mum. You may have seen our video about Halloween costumes in the papers, been tuning into pregnancy announcements and diaries from several of our vloggers, or watched one of the million minutes of video that has now been watched on our channel – if so, thank you very much for helping us hit such an exciting milestone!

Behind the scenes we’ve also been busy chatting to several vloggers who you may already know as they’ve had their own successful channels for a while. And we’re delighted to announce that they are joining our lovely family of Channel Mum vloggers! Here’s a little round-up of the new faces who you’ll spot on the channel very soon:

Katie & Babyis mum to two-year old Ellie and has amassed more than 20,000 subscribers on her channel, where she vlogs about life as a mum and also about her upcoming wedding. Welcome, Katie!

Laura Byrne is the face of the Belle’s Boutique channel. Laura started as a beauty vlogger and is mum to one-year old Harrison. She recently returned to work, so joins our crew of working mums here at Channel Mum.

Also joining us is Canadian mum of two Emily Norriswho lives in Essex and provides ‘mumspiration’ on all-things to do with life as a mum over on her channel.

Leanne Colbeck – AKA Umbumgo – was one of the first mum vloggers on YouTube, having set her channel up nine years ago, during which time she has had no less than five children. She’s something of a YouTube stalwart and we’re delighted to have her joining Team Channel Mum!

2.2 Children & A Dog‘s Jess Atherton is next up! Jess is mum to Joshua and Sophie, as well as four-legged Milo! She’s keen on crafts and baking – welcome, Jess.

Emma Ross, who you may have seen on her Mamalina channel is mum to baby Jack, and our very own earth mother! Emma is a keen yogi and makes her own shampoo and baby products, as well as being a fan of festivals and travelling.

We’re also very excited to welcome Holly Smithwho has built up a large following thanks to her money-saving and couponing tips aimed at mums. Holly, who is a mum of two, suffers with Asperger’s syndrome and a physical disability. She regularly appears on TV as a money-saving expert.

Win £250 this month!Don’t forget to subscribe to Channel Mum so you never miss a thing from the new and old faces on our channel! By doing so, you’ll also be in with a chance of winning a £250 shopping voucher, which we’re giving away to subscribers every week throughout this month.

New Talent AnnouncementIf you’ve applied to be a Channel Mum vlogger, we’ll be in touch and will be announcing our next round of vloggers in the New Year.

It’s been a busy time for Channel Mum, after announcing that ITV have taken a minority stake in us last month. We were busy visiting the ITV news studios this week and here’s our Siobhan wondering what button to press next! We’re still surprised the news came out on time on Tuesday…

Anyway, on to our latest important announcement, our latest round of Channel Mum New Talent Vloggers! The standard again has been so high and our lovely judges have had a really tough time wading through so many excellent applications and working out who to put through. Here are the three lovely girls who will be joining the Channel Mum vlogging team this time:

Kate Bridge: Kate lives in Wales in a small town by the sea with her crazy, noisy and lovely family. The family spend most of their spare time on the beach and she loves baking, photography and is into fashion and style. She’s a self-confessed big kid and enjoys most of the things her kids enjoy.

Nicola Johnston: Nicola has a one year old daughter and an 11 year old step-daughter and she’ll be vlogging about life as a first time mum, a step-mum, a post-natal anxiety sufferer and sharing all the tips she’s learnt along the way.

Jeorgia Cook: 21 year old Jeorgia is mum to her surprise baby Jax. Newly single, she’s embarking on a fresh start on her own with her toddler. She’s hoping to become a midwife and has just completed a course as a breast feeding specialist. She enjoys DIY projects, photography and cooking.

A big welcome to our three new vloggers, their Panasonic cameras will be winging their way to them next week!

Don’t forget to subscribe to Channel Mum on YouTube and look out for intro videos from Kate, Nicola and Jeorgia appearing soon.

A message from Siobhan Freegard. Lovely news for Channel Mum yesterday when we announced our new Godparent: ITV. The official ITV release is here and you can follow all the amazing press coverage live on our Twitter feed. But I thought I’d tell you a bit about the story behind the headline. What is Channel Mum and why?

The Why
I had been watching the rise and rise of YouTube and video, but assuming it was primarily ‘for the kids’: a crazy, high energy, new generation media combination of Minecraft, make-up tutorials, teenage boys playing pranks on each other and of course, Zoella. Nothing for me there, move along please.

We all like the occasional funny-cat or viral video, but someone will always post the best ones on Facebook or the Mail Online will pick them up, so even the ‘grown-ups’ get to see these eventually. But then I was having coffee with a younger mum, a Millennial in her twenties and we were discussing the generation-spanning, every day mum dilemma: what’s for tea. We both moved to our phones to google a particular recipe and while I landed on a recipe website, she went straight to a video. I stopped and asked her why and her simple reply was a perplexed ‘why would you want to read all those WORDS’.

The What
So I started to think about video differently. What could video convey that text can’t? What can video show better than words can tell? How could that relate to mums in other ways than recipes? Taking a deeper look into YouTube, I found a small number of ‘mummy vloggers’: mums who tell their stories, of their daily lives in video diary form. The ups and downs, struggles and victories of life with babies and small children. Their audience are other mums, pleased to tune in for a short while to watch other mums and learn, empathise, compare and contrast their lives. I loved these young mums and their stories and invited them to come together to create a single destination – a place mums could carve out as their own on YouTube that isn’t lost within the wilderness of teens, pranks and funny cats. And so Channel Mum was born.

The How
Thanks to sponsorship from Panasonic, we were able to create a mentoring programme for mums out there who had stories to tell, but who hadn’t considered a career in vlogging and so, each month new voices join the channel. Channel Mum is very new, but it already feels like a community, a safe place for mums to come and share their stories and their lives – whether as vloggers or viewers. As Stacey, one of our vloggers told me, ‘Our generation in some ways feel it’s easier to talk about our problems to a camera, than to a person’.

I have always maintained that ‘It takes a village to raise a child’ but in modern times, as young families have become increasingly isolated and further apart from their extended family, Channel Mum is finding its place as the modern day village for millennial mums. I am immensely grateful to ITV for recognising this need and for coming on board to support the growth and development of this new village and I am very proud of all the vlogging mums sharing their lives and breaking down barriers and supporting each other on the intense, overwhelming, confusing, amazing journey of parenthood.

Yay! It’s the Channel Mum Vlog 20 time again. Our Vlog 20 is a round-up of the top twenty mum-focused creators on YouTube – our clever algorithm crunches the numbers, analysing both reach and engagement metrics to benchmark performance. Take a look to see who the movers and shakers are this time and big congratulations to everyone who has made it into the list – we know just how much time and effort goes into creating your vlogs alongside being a parent.

A big welcome back to sisters Claire and Lucy who run one of our favourite foodie channels on YouTube, Crumbs Food, they’re back in the Vlog 20 this time straight in at number twelve. They’re not just about recipes though, we’re loving their vlogs on surviving the summer holidays. Roll on September…

The top ten looks very similar to the last Vlog 20, with not too much movement, apart from an appearance from The Witt Family who have climbed from twelfth place to tenth place. Congratulations to you Claire.

We have one new entrant this month, congrats to My Pretty Mummy, who’s gone straight in in joint fifteenth place. Emma lives in London with two under-fives and one is a leap year baby!

Congratulations to everyone who’s made it into our Vlog 20, certificates are winging their way to you right now, please do tag us if you share them on social media. If you, or someone you know, has over 1,000 subscribers and would like to be considered for our Vlog 20, please drop us a line at [email protected]. Happy vlogging.

We’re a little late in announcing this month’s newest members of the Channel Mum family because there was much excitement as the stork arrived for our Clem. He dropped off her gorgeous newborn boy called Ezra Jack (if only it was really that easy…).

We’re always astounded by the quality, and quantity, of the new talent applications we get every single month and it’s a tough job for our judging panel to sort through them. Here’s who we’ve selected this time:

Sarah Cantwell: Sarah is mum to daughter Rosalie who is almost one. She lives in Didcot and will be vlogging about her life as a mum and home-maker, plus growing your own and cooking with it and keeping chickens. She says, “I’m not a farmer or an expert gardener. I’m just a normal mum, trying to eat clean and feed her family the best way I can, so that they can all grow and perform to the best of their ability.”

Susie Verrill: Susie has a cute son called Milo and says: “My videos will be funny, but relatable. Although it’s great to see glossy images of motherhood, they’re often not a true reflection of day-to-day life and I’d love it if people could watch my videos and feel like they were just listening to a friend.”

Jules Furness: Jules will be sharing what life is like for her and husband and their gorgeous son Josh who is nearly one. Expect parenting tips, fun, days out and insight into what adoption is really like.

Lucy Roberts: Lucy is a mum of two and is expecting her third baby. Her big passions in life are capturing memories and having lots of adventures. She’ll be vlogging about how a third pregnancy is the polar opposite of a first pregnancy, plus all the exciting adventures she has with her family.

Sarah Nash: Sarah is expecting her first baby any day now. In her own words Sarah is “opinionated, fun, chatty and a says it how it is kinda person.” She’ll be vlogging about her journey going from no children to what it’s really like to have a baby in the house and how it lives up to expectations.

A huge welcome to all these fabulous ladies who will be joining Channel Mum later this summer when they receive their Panasonic camcorders. We’re also delighted to welcome the following vloggers who are (or are about to be) featuring on our channel with a guest playlist: Natasha Bailie, Charlotte Taylor, Rebecca Meldrum, Lisa Lumley, Katie Ellison. Don’t forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel so you don’t miss a thing!

Introducing… the lineup for our latest Vlog 20 – the Channel Mum roundup of the most engaging & high-reach YouTube channels for mums.

The top four channels remain unchallenged, with Ruth Crilly’s A Model Recommends channel moving into fifth place just a couple of weeks before her baby is due – congratulations, Ruth, and we hope to see lots of mum videos popping up onto your channel after the arrival of your little one!

Zoe Ball’s Off Air Channel has made it into the list for the first time thanks to Zoe starting a series on her channel called Mums Off Air in which she interviews her celeb mum friends, meaning that we can now count her as a mum vlogger – welcome to the clan, Zoe!

We’ve been keeping an eye on Telegraph journalist Bryony Gordon’s One Fat Mother channel since it launched earlier this year and now that it has hit the 1000 subscriber mark it also qualifies for entry to the Vlog 20 – congrats to Bryony who has covered an impressive range of topics since she launched her channel, from baby sleep to flying with children and fussy eaters.

Also new to the list is Percy & Grace – a blogger and vlogger who has been sharing videos about her family life since her baby Grace was born just over a year ago. A big high five to Rebecca, who is the mum behind the channel, for making the list!

If you have a YouTube channel for mums that has 1000 subscribers or more and is not yet on the Vlog 20, do let us know.

Well done to all 20 of you – and here’s to another month of successful vlogging!

Our little family of Channel Mum sponsored vloggers is growing nicely, with a continuous stream of applications coming in each month. This month we’re very excited to share the four new mums who we’ve selected to join our merry team of vloggers:

Alice Young: Alice, aged 21, is mum to Amelia. Like another of our vloggers, Isabel Brandon, Alice fell pregnant whilst at university. She’s raising Amelia as a single mum and says:

“Families come in all shapes and sizes and mine happens to be a young single mum living with her parents raising her own daughter. It’s amazing to see the bond Amelia has with her grandparents grow and we all live a happy (most of the time) life together. I would love to show that it is ok for your family not to be a dictionary version but being different still means you can do just as much.”

Sophie Notarbartolo: Sophie works as a maternity assistant and breastfeeding support worker at Bournemouth Hospital and is mummy to baby Theo. Before she started a family, she had a pressurised job in a bank and feels that becoming a mum gave her the direction and fulfilment that was missing in her life. We’re excited to welcome someone who looks after other mums as her profession – Sophie’s mantra is: “We are the parents! Trust your gut, you know your baby so you do whatever you need to whenever…”

Emma Bailey: Londoner Emma has two children and enjoys making the most of everything London life has to offer to her family. She’s a stay-at-home mum and wants to use her vlog to show other parents that they are not the only ones who have to deal with tantrums in a restaurant!

Lucy Aitken Read: 32-year old Lucy upped sticks from the UK and moved her family to a farm in New Zealand when her second child was born. Lucy is an expert in natural beauty and writes a magazine column on the subject, as well as being a proponent of attachment parenting. She wants her channel to be very practical with lots of hands-on tutorials, presented with humour and tapping into everyone’s inner earth mother!

A big welcome on board to these lovely ladies, who we will start working with a little later in the summer, when they will each receive their Panasonic camcorders.

Oh…and if you haven’t yet subscribed to our YouTube channel yet, now is a very good time to do so as there will be LOTS of exciting goings-on over there very soon!

If you’ve been waiting for it – here we have it! March’s Vlog 20 – our list of the top 20 mum YouTube channels, determined by their engagement and reach.

The list sees one new entry – entering in joint 19th place is the S Walker Makeup channel, home to beauty vlogger Sara, who became a mum just last week! Sara announced her pregnancy on her channel in January after much speculation from her viewers and social media followers. Since then she’s shared videos about her pregnancy and baby with her followers, meaning that we can welcome her into the Channel Mum Vlog 20 Family!

Oh and we couldn’t resist sharing a pic of Sara with her gorgeous new baby, either.

If you’re interested in taking a look at how the list breaks down in to reach and engagement specifically, here are those results. As always, a huge congratulations to everyone who made the list and for all the energy that you put into making great videos for us to watch!

It’s been just over a month since we announced the first Channel Mum sponsored vloggers, who have already been making brilliant progress.And now we’re ready to share the new selection of mums to join our stellar vlogging lineup!Without further ado:

SJ Ljungstrom juggles being mum to her two sons with her job as a director at a top London advertising agency. She admits to finding life as a working mum a struggle sometimes and will be talking about the challenges and highs & lows, as well as trying to debunk “the myth that career mums aren’t fantastic mums”.

kiddycharts.com is a blog run by Helen Neale, which specialises in offering parents personalised charts to download and print to help kids with anything from potty training to fussy eating.We’ll be working with Helen to share the charts with mums on YouTube in video format, so if you’re looking for a helping hand to encourage a certain behaviour in your child, Helen’s new channel will be the place to go!

Stacey Leigh had her daughter, who is now nine, when she was just nineteen.She was a single mum until she met her husband who she has been married to for three years, with a baby boy born last year. Stacey will be vlogging about topics such as how to start a relationship when there are children involved, as well as taking up studying as a mum and getting your confidence back after having children. She impressed the judges with her down to earth personality and ideas for her channel.

Charlie O’Brien joins the Channel Mum stable as a new mum – her little boy is just a few weeks old – and intends to make her channel stand out from the crowd by offering a female & male take on life as parents, by having her partner join her in her videos.Charlie is a presenter for a national radio station – we’re really excited that she’s stepping out in front of the camera and joining our team!

Laura Oakley is also a new mum.Aged just 21, Laura’s motto as a mum is “just go with it” and she’ll be talking about how she applies this to everything that parenthood throws at her from the cold, hard truths about pregnancy, to her labour story and beyond.

Charlotte Peach approached us with a very honest idea for her channel. Having developed OCD during pregnancy, Charlotte tried to find videos on YouTube from other mums about maternal OCD but struggled to find anything “as we’re all expected to say how happy we are”.Charlotte’s channel will see her sharing her experiences of mental health issues and her journey back to a more fulfilled, happy life.

Alex Gladwin is a soon-to-be mum of two, who the judges felt was immediately likeable and watchable. The challenges of juggling a new baby with a toddler is something that lots of us face at some point so we’re really looking forward to watching Alex’s videos about how she gets on with this new stage of motherhood.Alex is also a strict vegetarian so we’ll be looking out for tasty meat-free inspiration on her channel!

We’ll be sharing an update on how all our sponsored vloggers are getting on very soon – a hearty congratulations to our newest recruits!

We first released the Channel Mum Vlog 15 – our roundup of the top UK YouTube channels for mums – back in December. And just three months later we’re really excited to say that the Channel Mum Vlog 15 is now the Vlog 20.

We publish the list every month and as we’ve been doing so, we’ve seen a steady increase in the number of mums vlogging on YouTube and – crucially for the Vlog 20 – hitting the 1000 subscriber mark, which means that they are eligible to make the list.

This month’s includes a number of newly established channels, including one fronted by celebrity mum Michelle Heaton who has attracted over 200,000 views of her channel since it launched in November 2014. The ‘Michelle Heaton In Reality’ channel features videos with Michelle vlogging about health and fitness, the red carpet and motherhood, with one of her most popular videos last month offering advice on how to throw a Frozen birthday party.

One of YouTube’s top beauty vloggers Ruth Crilly also makes the list for the first time this month. Ruth, who has nearly 300k subscribers on her channel ‘A Model Recommends’, is pregnant with her first child and has begun vlogging about her pregnancy. Vloggers need to make at least one family-related video per month to make the list, which means Ruth has joined the other 19 channels in the Vlog 20.

Other channels making the list for the first time include Belles Boutique, fronted by mum Laura whose channel has an impressive 18,000 subscribers and Emma Ross’ Mamalina channel, which just hit 1000 subscribers.

The Saccone-Jolys channel, fronted by vlogger Anna and husband Jonathan tops the combined engagement & reach chart this month, seeing off competition from Louise Pentland’s Sprinkle of Chatter channel, which took first place in the previous two months.Sprinkle of Chatter was knocked out of the Vlog 20 completely this month, as none of her videos were family-related.

Huge congratulations to everyone who made the list this month – as well as to the many new UK-based channels that are popping up for mums – welcome to the family!

When we launched Channel Mum back in January, we announced that we were looking for new talent to join our sponsorship programme and invited mums across the UK to apply for the opportunity. It’s fair to say that we were pretty bowled over by the response!

We’ve received hundreds of applications. And along with each application came a unique story: mums who had gone through the agony of trying to conceive for a long time; young mums; mums to children with special needs; earth mothers; career girls; military wives and single mums. And so many equally unique ideas for YouTube channels and content. Our panel of judges really had their work cut out for them in selecting the first group of channels to offer sponsorship to.

But they did, and today we are delighted to announce the first of the year’s successful entrants. We’ve selected nine channels for sponsorship. Some have already begun their vlogging journey; others just have an idea for the shape they would like their channel to take. We’ll be working with each of them to develop their channel over the coming months and will share their progress as we do so but in the meantime, here’s a glimpse of them:

Lauren Brown: Lauren has two children, aged 8 and 10. Her background was in the fashion industry but she is now a stay-at-home mum who’s looking to “reconnect with her mojo” through vlogging after devoting the last few years to motherhood. Lauren also has a disability and will be sharing the story of how she copes with that with her viewers.

Hey Mummy TV: Katy Pullinger & Anna Cribb have four children aged 3-8 between them and another on the way. They launched their channel in October 2014, offering two perspectives and two opinions on all-things parenting.

Lauren Hampshire: Lauren is a trained broadcast journalist and producer and mum to her 21-month old daughter. She’s not yet on YouTube but the panel praised her application video for being “cheery but honest”.

Jessica Thornton: Jess is mum to a nine-month old boy and soon to be step-mum, when she marries her “tattooed bloke” later this year. She wants to ensure that her channel has “no sugar coating”.

Isabel Brandon: Isabel was catapulted into motherhood when she fell pregnant whilst living in a house share at university, at the age of 20. She’ll be vlogging about life as a young mum and about coping with the birth of a premature baby, which she has first-hand experience of after her son was born eleven weeks early.

Jen Townsend: Jen is a new mum – her baby boy was born in December 2014. She describes herself pre-baby as “very career driven, ambitious and focused on my career goals” as well as being very active. She’s now in the process of getting used to a totally new way of life as a mum and will be vlogging about her personal experiences of issues such as breastfeeding, finding your identity as a mum and the impact of having a baby on your relationship.

Maria Noell: Maria describes herself as an earth mother: “barefoot with a love of the outdoors, happiest when camping, passionate about a healthy, centred but active lifestyle”. She became a mum aged 22 and has written in a diary since she was very young and is now excited about turning her diary into a vlog.

Mummy Nutter: Laura juggles her fashion career with having two children under three. In a departure from much of the mum content on YouTube which is focused on diary-style videos and hauls, she wants to make her channel informative and topic-led, sharing her take on issues such as potty training, teeth cleaning, weaning and holidaying with kids.

Rachel Brady: Former party girl Rachel now lives on a farm in Derbyshire and has two children. She’ll be focusing on cooking on her channel and will be filming rural farm-life – complete with chickens – though “it won’t be all perfect and lifestyle porn-y: it will be messy and real”!

So there we have it – the first Channel Mum-sponsored vloggers! We’re really excited about working with each of them to help them realise their vlogging potential. Stay tuned to hear more from them, and if you’d like to apply for the opportunity, you can do so at any time throughout the year.

New entries include Natasha Bailie and 2.2. Children and A Dog, both of whom qualified for the Vlog 15 for the first time this month having hit 1000 subscribers. Due to strong engagement with their content, they pushed out some of the more established creators who were in the list last month, with Natasha’s channel scoring an impressive 5th for engagement in the overall list, and 7th overall.

A special mention also to Hannah Maggs, who topped the list for engagement, beating off competition channels with seven times as many subscribers as her own. The engagement score factors in a number of metrics including interactions with content as a proportion of views and YouTube’s all-important watch-time.

Lumdeedums vlogs about her experiences of surrogacy here in the UK, providing a personal and unique perspective on an issue that isn’t widely spoken about elsewhere. The crafts content on Red Ted Art, already an established blog and book, has been translated by its creator in Maggy Woodley into video content for YouTube with great success. And finally we see an entry from Lucie of Lucie & The Bump, who shared the news this month that her baby, Harry, will be receiving a life-changing operation.

Videos made by those in the Vlog 15 in January clocked nearly 11 million views between them, showing the sheer scale of the mum community on YouTube. Congratulations to everyone on the list – we’re already looking forward to seeing what next month holds!

I remember taking over the running of an almost defunct toddler group when my first child was about two. I gave all the toys a good clean, got some new ones by begging for donations, bought some posh biscuits and replaced the Mellow Bird’s coffee with Nescafe (no one drank skinny lattes back then). And I put the word out: leaflets at the doctors and on church hall noticeboards.

And nervously I opened the door at 10am. A long line of buggies and mums and babies and toddlers were waiting outside, and more followed behind. The hall was full and noisy; the toddlers ran round in circles or rode little trucks like dodgem cars, the babies sat mesmerised in the baby corner and the mums chatted. Then we sat in a big wide circle and sang all my favourites (My top 3: Dingle Dangle Scarecrow, Miss Polly had a Dolly and 3 Naughty Monkeys).

I had such a strong sense of pride, community and belonging – and relief! Today felt a little bit like that. You just don’t know if people will come along and see what you’re up to; you don’t know if they will like it if they do come. You don’t know – but you take a deep breathe and open the door.

I just wanted to give a big shout out to all you lovely people who have come over to say hello, join up or give encouragement to Channel Mum. Thank you for giving us such a warm welcome. And thanks to the Guardian, The Drum and Campaign who helped us get the word out.

Today we’ve released the results of the first ever Channel Mum Vlog 15 index, revealing the top 15 mum-focused YouTube creators for the month of December 2014.

We’ve put together a very clever-sounding algorithm that allows us to rate creators against each other across a range of datapoints to give us an engagement and reach score and then a ranking based on a combination of both. We wanted the Vlog 15 to be not just reflective of creators’ scale (subscribers / views) in the way that most YouTube indexes are, but also to factor quality of engagement with content, and also the creator’s social footprint outside of YouTube.

The much-loved Anna Sacconne managed to cling to her position at the top of the index in both November and December, though in December she was joined at the top by Sprinkle of Chatter‘s Louise Pentland, who achieved the exact same score as Anna. Within the overall 15 there’s a real mix of different interests and specialisms among the vloggers and their content, including grocery hauls, cooking, kids & mum fashion, beauty and money-saving.

December was a busy month for our lovely creators, with many of them participating in Vlogmas, which saw them joining scores of other YouTubers in committing to post every day throughout the month. But despite the number of videos posted by the vloggers increasing by 30 percent between November and December, this didn’t translate into an increased number of views, with the Vlog 15 clocking 3m less views in December vs. the previous month, showing that increased frequency doesn’t necessarily mean more views.

We’ve looked at average watch-time as a key metric in our index, as we know it’s an important part of the YouTube algorithm that determines which content appears organically on the site. Interestingly there was no correlation between the scale of the vloggers’ community and their watch-time, showing that even newer vloggers or those with smaller communities can command impressive watch-times with the right content.

We’ll be releasing the Channel Mum Vlog 15 in the second week of each month for the month previously. We hope it will become a really useful resource for viewers, advertisers and vloggers themselves to assess the performance of mum-focused YouTube talent.

If you’re a vlogger or creator and would like to be considered for the Vlog 15, please get in touch at [email protected]. To be assessed, you must have a minimum of 1000 subscribers and have made at least one piece of mum-focused content during the relevant month.

For anyone else who would like more information or to offer feedback about the Vlog 15, please drop us a note at [email protected]

My kids don’t google questions anymore, they youtube them. And for a while that’s how I thought it would be. YouTube for kids: Minecraft, makeup and funny cat videos. But the YouTube kids are growing up – and having babies. And the YouTube generation of mums have just as many questions as I did when I was a new mum: how do I get my baby to sleep when they think that day is night and night is day? Can I give Calpol AND Ibuprofen for a fever? Is it normal for my baby to cry this much? But more importantly, am I normal?! Why is this so scary? Does anyone else feel overwhelmed? Am I really good enough to be in charge of this tiny delicate, precious little baby?

Millennial mums deserve answers to these questions and they want it in the intimate, visual format of video blogging: vlogging, where it feels like you’re hearing from friends you can get to know and trust. But if you look for answers on YouTube right now, you’ll probably be met mostly by American ‘moms’ (lovely but just different somehow) or corporate how-to’s.

And so Channel Mum was born.

There are some great Mum vloggers already out here – and we’ll introduce you to them here. But we’re also sponsoring 100 mums to find their vlogging voice and tell us their stories. Could you be one? Channel Mum videos are made with love and from the heart by real mums. It’s not about experts telling you what to do, it’s about the honest face of parenting.